Disability Beneficiaries Exceed 10.9 Million 2 Straight Years
March 12, 2015 - 11:11 AM
By Ali Meyer
(CNSNews.com) -- The number of disability beneficiaries has exceeded 10,900,000 for two straight years, according to data from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The number of beneficiaries first exceeded 10.9 million in February 2013 and has remained above that level for 25 months -- the most recent data from February 2015 show the number of disability beneficiaries to be 10,916,460.
disability
The number of Americans receiving disability benefits peaked in May 2014 when it exceeded 11 million, hitting a record high of 11,004,507.
This number includes disabled workers, spouses of disabled workers and children of disabled workers.
According to the SSA, a disabled worker is a “beneficiary who worked in covered employment long enough to be insured and who had been working recently in covered employment prior to disability onset.” The spouse of a disabled worker “must either (1) have a child under age 16 or a disabled child in his or her care, or (2) be at least 62 years old; applies also to divorced spouse if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.” Finally, children of disabled workers includes a minor child (under age 18), an adult disabled before the age of 22, or a high school student under age 19.
According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, the “Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program provides benefits to insured workers with disabilities under the full retirement age and their dependents based on an individual worker’s earnings and work history in covered employment.”
social security
“Recently, some Members of Congress and the public have expressed concern over the financial sustainability of the SSDI program,” said the CRS. “Between 1980 and 2011, the number of disabled-worker beneficiaries grew 196.6%, whereas the number of workers insured for disability increased 50.9%. This increase in the ratio of disabled-worker beneficiaries to insured workers, or prevalence rate, has placed pressure on the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund, which the Social Security Board of Trustees projects will be exhausted in 2016.”
Source URL:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/disability-beneficiaries-exceed-109-million-2-straight-years
